Philippe Lazaro
OCTOBER 2016

Burundi Road Trip

Burundi is a fairly small country, which allowed us to see a large portion of it by driving around. We worked our way from Bujumbura at the top of Lake Tanganyika down to the tip where it borders Tanzania, then back up to the new capital of Gitega, right in the heart of the heart of the country.

You can learn quite a bit just by staring out the window, and the streets of Burundi gave us quite a bit to take in. Life in Burundi is diverse! I love how having a traveler’s eyes can render one person’s sense of ordinary into extraordinary.

Field Hotels

Whenever I’m doing a trip somewhere like rural Burundi, my local partners arrange the on the ground accommodations unless otherwise noted. This often means I don’t know where I’m going to stay until I get there.

Cell signal, Wi-Fi, hot water, electricity are all question marks until I get there. Some places I’ve stayed at were basically camping. Others were surprisingly cozy.

What I love about these field hotels, especially the ones I stayed at on this trip in Burundi, is that the people running them cared for them with such pride. Some places don’t see international visitors too often, but it was amazing- moving, even- to pull out every stop in trying to make you feel welcome.

Mariam's Convenience

Even the most ordinary roadside shop selling basic, everyday goods has a whole story behind it if you know how to look for it.

Mariam was a farmer. Well, she still is. But she needed another source of income for her family. So she thought about starting a business.

Starting a shop like this takes an up front investment, and most women in Burundi don’t have access to that capital, or even to a bank that could lend them the money to get started. But she found that support in her community through Village Savings activities in a Purpose Group.

Now her shop has a little bit of everything and she’s not done. She hopes to further expand her shop in the near future.

Jogging Not Allowed

Burundi has a complicated, but also kind of beautiful relationship with the sport of running.

In 2014 Burundi banned jogging.

The ban was a little surprising, since the president who passed it was a former PE teacher, a huge football fan, and a football buff.

That made me want to investigate more about Burundi’s jogging clubs. Turns out they’ve been pretty significant sources for solidarity and social support.

(Much of what I learned stems from Peter Frick Wright’s story in Outside Magazine several years ago. To my knowledge, the ban is no longer active.)

Village Savings Groups

Are you familiar with village savings groups?

In many rural villages, banks don’t operate. With nowhere to save money, borrow loans, or invest in a community, these villages can’t make strides against poverty. But village savings groups change that by equipping communities to become their own banks.

This is an increasingly common practice, especially around Africa and South Asia. Each organization runs them slightly differently, but I’m quite partial (and biased!) towards Plant With Purpose’s Purpose Group model that pairs these activities with land restoration and environmental education.

Things from Precolonial Burundi

I used to think I wasn’t a big museum guy… turns out I was just going to the wrong museums.

I loved the Gitega Royal Museum in Burundi’s capital. It’s small, but it felt good to see African artifacts on display in an actual African country, amirite, Killmonger?

It’s wild how many cultures have traditionally seen twins as bad luck. I’m not offended by Burundi’s solution to the hex, though: share a beer.

Burundi

Burundi is drumbeats, mosquito nets, and pineapples.
Burundi is plates of ugali, bananas, pomme frites, meaty chicken, and lengalenga.
Burundi is that baseball score that manages to find your phone after driving for days without reception.
Burundi is amahoro.
Burundi is horned cattle.
Burundi is walking with sensitivity towards its recent history of tumultuous events.
Burundi are bottles of Primus, yellow jerry cans, and plastic discs turned into kids’ toys.
Burundi is the curiosity of children, the bright pattern of women’s dresses.
Burundi is meeting a man who used to eat once a day now feeding all five of his kids three solid meals.
Burundi is families, friends, and new friends taking selfies at the foot of a waterfall.

Notes from Burundi

Whenever I tell people that I’ve been in Burundi the past couple of weeks, the most common reaction I get is this:

Cool. Where is that??

Here’s my geography lesson for ya. Go put on Black Panther. Play that opening scene with Sterling K. Brown reading the legend of Wakanda as a bedtime story. Take note of where in Africa they zoom in and out of. Small country, east of Lake Tanganyika.

Burundi.

I learned so much from spending two weeks in Burundi, and geography was only a small portion of it. It’s a gorgeous country, underestimated due to its struggles with hunger and conflict. But there are so many local leaders, women especially, who are driving the country forward while working to preserve its nature and culture.

This is Burundi

Burundi isn't a country that gets a whole lot of media attention. But it's a place with so many stories. After two weeks in Burundi, I have plenty of stories I'm excited to share, but they can best b appreciated with a little bit of background knowledge.

Burundi is a small country. French is the business language, but Kirundi, Swahili, and other tongues are the language of the people. Most people who know something about Burundi know about poverty, hunger, or conflict. But with that established, it's time to go deeper. There's so much more to the story than that.

Three Places

I’ve been away the past few weeks, both digitally and physically, because… it’s been quite the month! Such an eclectic set of adventures in such a short time: The African Heartland. A European city of dreams and music. An Arctic coastline

I deliberately kept off my devices for the most part, and kept my writing to physical ink and paper. I saw and learned so much, and just wanted to take it all in. Happy to have my adventure bucket running pretty full at the moment. Looking forward to taking some time over the next few weeks to keep processing it all.

🪘

A few things I’m really feeling right now:

Deeply grateful for @deanna.suzanna- during a two week work trip, she took care of the kids 3-on-1, and if that’s not enough, of course that’s when they all got sick! In spite of that, she somehow got everybody on an even better rhythm than we had when I left. In the words of Nate Dogg, ain’t nobody does it better!

🎻

Deeply appreciative of where I am in life right now. So much of life has felt like an unending state of transition the past couple years, but I feel like I did have a moment to recognize that I’m exactly where a younger me would’ve hoped.

❄️

Deeply introspective! Between walking European streets late at night and taking deep breaths in the woods… queue up those big thoughts. I still have so much to process and take in about the past few weeks. Looking forward to sharing some of the journey.

Guatemalan Errands

People love and romanticize the idea of living like a local when traveling, so here's a big tip on how to do that:

Do really ordinary boring stuff.

Errands.

Except when you're in a different setting, a lot of times it won't be boring at all. Some unfamiliar places.

In Guatemala, ordinary errands for us looked like grocery shopping and tracking down insulin.

But it's when you do these things that you realize the subtle (or occasionally unsubtle) ways these things differ from place to place and how that reflects deeper, underlying differences that make each place unique.

Taste of Toronto

If you love the world, the different foods of the world, and trying as much of them as possible… it’s hard to think of a better spot to spend a weekend than Toronto.

Two of the city’s biggest strengths are its diversity and infrastructure.

People from all over the world have re-rooted in Toronto, bringing with them all kinds of flavors.

Toronto itself has the kind of public transit and infrastructure rarely seen in North America, making it easy to hop between Chinatown and Little Portugal, the Market District and Greektown, etc.

With three days in Toronto, we aimed to eat from as many different cuisines as possible. Since most restaurants aren’t open for breakfast, simply doing a lunch and dinner out each day would have meant limiting our lineup to just six places. We just couldn’t do that, in what may be the world’s most multicultural city.

Here are the seventeen places we ate to try and taste the world.

Thailand, 2014

We used to dream about today.

Bangkok, 2014.

About a month and a half ago, Deanna went back to work, supervising social workers en route to getting their license. The other week she got trained in EMDR- a really emerging therapy that’s picked up a lot of interest lately.

Meanwhile, I’m over here about to hop on a planning and logistics call for a two week journey into Africa, about to visit a few different places that have held my interest and curiosity for such a long time.

And how does it all happen with three kids under three? I don’t know, man. Lots of adjustments. One thing at a time. Super helpful grandparents. Remembering that the main thing is just loving the kids and enjoying being around them.

All of this used to be a dream. Back in 2014, Deanna was finishing a grad program and I was about to start one. Programs that would hopefully set us on the path to the exact things we’re doing now. And at just the right time. Mental health services are especially needed. As is climate action. As are stories that help us be human.

The kids were always part of the dream too.

Feeling really grateful this week. And happy for my 2014 self.

Thrift Shop Globe

What’s the best thing you’ve found at a thrift store?

The other week, we spent a week at my in-laws, but I totally forgot the suitcase we packed for the kids at home. 🤭 Took an emergency trip to the thrift shop to pick up a bunch of $1 onesies, and needed to get a few toys too. Then I found this globe.

The amount of info stored on this thing is impressive! Capitals, currencies, languages, population, geographic features, historical facts… not to mention the Ultimate Challenge mode that starts up a geography bee.

I knew I got a steal on this thing, but I had to look up exactly by how much. I found it online. A 91% discount?! Still stoked about that.

Chinatown Challenge: Daniel

It’s the Chinatown Challenge!

Daniel and I competed to see who could put $30 to the best use during one night in Toronto’s Chinatown. We sought out to create the best lineup of food, snacks, drinks, and desserts we could while managing stomach space and trying to get to restaurants before they closed.

Daniel got: Honey Garlic Cauliflower, Steamed Pork Buns, Iced Latte, Kimchi Fries, Cucumber Roll
-$0.50 remaining

I need your help to pick a winner! Watch my previous reel to see what I ordered, and let me know in the comments or story poll who you think had the better lineup.

Chinatown Challenge: Philippe


It’s the Chinatown Challenge!

Daniel and I competed to see who could put $30 to the best use during one night in Toronto’s Chinatown. We sought out to create the best lineup of food, snacks, drinks, and desserts we could while managing stomach space and trying to get to restaurants before they closed.

I got: Banh Mi, Mango Lassi, Cereal Milk Ice Cream, Xiao Long Bao, Spicy Salmon Roll
$0.16 remaining

I need your help to pick a winner! Watch my next reel to see what Daniel ordered, and let me know in the comments or story poll who you think had the better lineup.

Camping w/ 3 Under 3

It’s always there.

That constant tug-of-war knowing all the things that get easier as they get older, bigger, more capable and independent.

All the things that come back. Sleep. Time. The ability to go places without so many large contraptions.

But on the other end of the rope are all the reminders of what’s great about right now. The hilarious pre-verbal ways they have of expressing themselves. The personalities that have come out in bloom.

We took our trio camping the other week and it felt like those two ends were in harmony rather than tension. New limits being pushed, while at the same time getting to sit together in a hammock strung between two oaks knowing how good it was right there.